Journalism of Courage
Marathi book Baap Navacha Bet details 23 stories by Marathi writers about their fathers.
R G Jadhav’s father,appa to him,passed away when Jadhav was in his early 20s. The writer never really got to have heart-to-heart conversations with his father to help him through a bad patch,yet Jadhav says he found a friend in the memories his appa left behind. He also writes about the struggle and ordeal that his family suffered when they had to go looking for more fire wood to burn his father’s half-burnt funeral pyre at the cremation grounds.
Writer D M Mirasdar’s fondest memories of his father are of him reciting shlokas by Ramdas Swami. He became the man who moulded young Mirasdar in his growing up years. Twenty three such untold stories of famous Marathi writers about their fathers are compiled in the book Baap Navacha Bet that was released on February 9 by the Jigeesha foundation.
Nayan Saraswate,editor of the book and president of Jigeesha,says,The idea for the book formed out of a successful experiment that we did around Diwali last year. We had launched the Diwali ank (annual magazine) that had articles,poems and stories on the theme of fathers. The response was very good so in November we discussed and came up with the idea of doing a book that would have Marathi writers talking about their fathers. Also writer D B Kulkarni insisted that we should go ahead with the book. He too was instrumental in the book seeing the light of the day. She adds that they wanted to present an unknown side of these writers to the audiences so that they connect to the stories. In fact every story has a little bit of advice for all of us. That is the crux of the book, says Saraswate.
The book features experiences of well-known writers like G Manurkar,Asha Bage and YM Pathan. Some of the stories offer deep insight into how the writers eventually turned towards their craft. Telling his story in his piece Ola Kinara (Wet Bank),Yashwant Pathak writes about his new slate and pencil and his struggle to perfect writing the Marathi alphabet Aa. He writes: I was unable to draw the lines for the alphabet perfectly. Baba held my hand hand and helped me. The new slate pencil fell from my hand and broke into two. I began crying. Baba gave me a new one and said,’good things don’t come easily,you have to work hard.’ I tried. The lines were crooked,then a little straight and finally straight. I ran into his room and showed him the perfect alphabet. He smiled and patted my head.
Talking about collating the works,Saraswate says,It wasn’t easy but once we convinced them to write for us it didn’t take long to materialise. In fact by January we were ready to go to print. She adds that compiling the book was in addition to the regular work their organisation does so they had a mad rush. There were days when we would be working on the content till late night, she says.
